file photoJames Clancy, an English teacher at Iselin Middle School, is charged with having a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old student three years ago.

WOODBRIDGE -- An English teacher at the Iselin Middle School in Woodbridge pleaded guilty yesterday to having criminal sexual contact with a female student in 2006, when the girl was 14.

James Clancy, 35, an eighth grade teacher, pleaded guilty to criminal sexual contact and official misconduct as part of a plea bargain negotiated with Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Christi Bevacqua.

Clancy told Superior Court Judge Frederick De Vesa in New Brunswick that he met the girl sometime between June 1 and July 31, 2006, in Edison. He said the two had a conversation, kissed and that he placed his “hand on her thigh ... outside her clothing,” for his own sexual gratification. His admissions came under questioning by his attorney, Louis Esposito of Cedar Grove.

As part of the plea deal, Clancy gave up his teaching license and forfeited any right to hold a public job again.

The state agreed to recommend that Clancy receive probation with the condition he serve up to 364 days in the Middlesex County jail. Sentencing is scheduled for July 26.
“The victim was satisfied with the plea bargain,” Bevacqua said after the hearing. “She wanted to be spared from any further proceedings.”

Clancy was charged in November with aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child. He was also charged with making lewd comments and sending lewd e-mails to the student around the same time in June 2006.

Bevacqua said the victim did not report the incident, but “she disclosed it to somebody who reported it to either DYFS (the state Division of Youth and Family Services) or Woodbridge (police).”

The victim was either 17 or 18 in November when it was reported.

After his arrest, Clancy was suspended with pay from his teaching job at the Woodbridge school.